Area Report for Board of Trustees

The Institutional Advancement division is made up of the following groups: Communications and Marketing (CM), Outreach and Recruitment (OR), Grants and Government Relations (GGR), Foundation and Alumni Relations (FAR). IA is involved in many different areas on and off Highline’s campus, ranging from promoting our College at local high schools, assisting with writing grants for key programs and raising money for student support and special projects, or skillfully crafting advertisements to placement on or in wide array of medium such as busses, billboards and movie theaters.  Institutional Advancement is there to do just that: advance our institution. Our 2022-2023 reports to the board will focus on our goals and objectives identified in Institutional Effectiveness Reports (IE). The SBDC/Startzone and COE for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management also report through IA and updates on these programs and their goals will be shared periodically.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

• The Grants team worked with High School Engagement, Federal Way Public Schools and CIS-FW/Highline to apply for WSAC Regional Challenge Grant ($125K) to form a stronger partnership with Federal Way Public Schools and Communities in Schools of Federal Way in order to increase access and the number of students applying to Highline College.
• IA/Government Relations helped coordinate a visit by Congressman Adam Smith (D-9^th) and his legislative staff with executive leaders from Green River, Highline, RTC and Seattle Colleges on 10/26. Among the items discussed were ideas on how to create more federal resources to match local funding to provide more access and support for education and applicable skill building for students and the recent ruling about DACA by the 5^th Court of Appeals.
• Communications and Marketing / Web team have initiated work on the strategic goal to improve the college’s top-level website (highline.edu) and most commonly visited subdomains to provide clearer direction and access to information for prospective and current students seeking info to enroll, get financial aid and access advising.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• The Foundation awarded approximately $40,000 in fall quarter in emergency tuition support so that approximately 60 students could stay enrolled and on track for their degree and program.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

• The Grants and Government Relations team have been conducting regular meetings with the MaST Center staff, to develop an action plan leading to stronger partnerships and sustainability funding for the MaST Center.
• Government Relations helped organize a walking tour of FWLE construction progress on 10/15 that included reps from Sound Transit, Cities of Des Moines and Kent, Puget Sound Regional Council and potential developers for the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) sites.
• HC and HCF sponsored tables at St. Anne’s Hospital Gala on 10/22, Para Los Ninos Fall Fundraiser on 11/5 and Federal Way Chamber of Commerce Gala on 11/12 and reps attended the MultiService Center Fall Luncheon on 10/14.
• The Student Legislative Breakfast will be held on Nov. 16th 8-10 a.m. This annual event is an opportunity for our students, faculty and staff to get to know our local Washington State Representatives and Senators. All Trustees and Executive Staff members are welcome to attend.
• The 13th annual Black & Brown Male Summit will be held on Campus on November 19th. This year’s theme is “unlocKING the truYOU” and is targeted towards male-identified high school and college students. The goal of the summit is the empowerment and motivation of Black and Brown young men in their academics and self.

Division Honors and Achievements

• IA thanks the President’s Office Professional Development Fund for support for team members to attend the Faculty and Staff of Color Conference, including Tanisha Williams, Scholarships and Alumni, Aleyda Cervantes, Melissa Lacayo Zapata and Rosa Garcia of the Outreach and Recruitment team. We also want to thank the HC Foundation for being the fiscal sponsor for the FSOCC and Tatyana Andreychenko and Dave Weber for their work in both purchasing and printing items in support of the conference.

Report submitted on October 27, 2022 by Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Josh Gerstman